About The Well
In 2001, a group of college students and a then 29-year-old pastor got together in a living room to talk about what church ought to be. I’m not sure that many beginning churches start with so many people in the room, but the energy brought by so many young people crowding into a swollen home was contagious. We brainstormed, writing on three-by-five cards what we thought of church. We wrote what we thought was important and what we thought wasn’t. Looking back, we were crafting the philosophy of The Well in that room. And the verse that kept hounding us throughout the conversation was Acts 2:42.
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
[Acts 2:42 ESV]
That idea resonated with us. The communal way of life spoke truth to a group of people already enamored with the coffee culture of the late nineties. We became convinced that the best way to accomplish the Great Commission was one conversation at a time, and that the Christian life was not meant to be lived alone. There was also a connection to the simple form of that ancient church. Thousands of years of history and tradition have piled up on top of what the early church found so important. We have made our simple religion complicated and we wanted to go back to some of that early simplicity. Our programs tend to be unimpressive, but very social. Our people tend to feel rough around the edges, but incredibly authentic.
The other part of that verse is an unwavering commitment to Biblical teaching. We choose to teach through Scripture chunk by chunk, sometimes taking a year or more to work through a large book of the Bible. By walking through Scripture in order, the way God inspired it to be written, we can’t skip topics. When they come up, we have to teach them. Some think that hearing about issues like predestination and homosexuality will drive people away from the faith. Our experience has shown the exact opposite. When those who have dark and painful pasts come and hear a message filled with hope and love and grace, and when they look down the row and see others crying because of the scars of their past and know they are not alone, God moves. The gospel does not need sugar coating; it needs to be authentically communicated by people who understand we are all part of a fallen race. We teach the hard topics because they need to be taught, because it keeps us in right relation to our holy God and to each other. Lost and saved, sinner and saint can all appreciate the honesty.
If you find all of this encouraging, then visit us at one of our locations for a service. We’d love to get to know you better.